THE FOURTH DIMENSION

My father, K. N. Sabnis would have been 90 years old today, if he were alive. Although a simple man with practically no riches, the generosity of his helping hand has ensured a legacy of goodwill for all of us. Over the past 13 years, since his demise, I learnt more about his behavioural traits from the various people he had connected to.

One such person is a college principle and a well reputed educationist. He told me about an incident when he took part in programs of All India Radio. My father was a program executive there. One day, while sharing ‘chai’, my father casually asked him about his family. Upon realising that he was the eldest child in a struggling family, my father advised him to skip the radio programs and instead concentrate on his studies and career. He said, “First afford, then indulge… family first, flair later… life first, lifestyle later.” The man followed his advice and did very well for himself.

It was the same with my brother who possessed exceptional playing skills as a cricketer. My father, though a cricketer himself, insisted that my brother concentrate on his earning career. My brother did exceptionally well for himself compared to his other equally talented playmates who tell him, “you, did the right thing at that time...” My father would say that the greatest gift that we can give some one (and ourselves, too) is not money or presents... it is the gift of time.

Time is considered to be the fourth dimension. We must develop this dimension, first by understanding its value and consequence and then by looking at the larger picture. When we complain about lack of time, more often than not, it is just a case of getting tangled in unnecessary or non-priority tasks… the first priority is family, the next is career and then comes community, which is actually the larger family …

A famous analogy compared the time of life to the passing of sand through an hourglass. The sand at the top is associated with the future, and, one tiny grain at a time, the future flows through the present into the past (the sand pile at the bottom of hourglass). The past is ever expanding, the future is ever decreasing… but the future grains become amassed into the past through the present…

Between the ‘urgent’ and the ‘important’, time is all about prioritising
‘develop new dimensions’… the future needs planned connecting…